Saturday, June 28, 2008

-- played Loran Cehack in Turn A Gundam, Edward Elric in Fullmetal Alchemist, Oosaki Nana in NANA-- stage actress with Theatre Group En -- tough, calm, forceful (both her characters and herself)-- won first annual seiyuu award as top female seiyuu-- Korean ancestry-- 36 years old

near the top of the seiyuu A-list-- 93 anime roles in a ten-year career:

Loran Cehack (Turn A Gundam)

Edward Elric (Fullmetal Alchemist)

Temari (Naruto)

Ueki Kousuke (Ueki's Law)

Oosaki Nana (NANA)

Teresa (Claymore)

Haraken (Dennou Coil)

Ayumi (Shion no Oh)

Yuuki (Itazura na Kiss)

Kuchiha (Amatsuki)

Popo (Kaiba)

044 (Ultraviolet: Code 044)

-- won first annual Seiyuu Award for best female lead of 2006, for rocker Nana in NANA-- has enormous range: plays a ten-year-old boy in Itazura na Kiss, and will play a genetically altered female warrior in Ultraviolet: Code 44-- but hasn't played any sweet girls in recent years; her characters tend to be tough and forceful, sometimes boys or young men who are mature beyond their years; sometimes tough and aggressive women.

other activities-- dubs foreign film and TV: 68 roles-- is the voice of Hilary Swank in most of her films, and of Mila Jovovich in many of hers-- has acted in 15 stage plays-- has done over 35 drama CDs-- has been in 58 games (all all-ages)

Korean background-- Japanese of Korean descent: father second generation in Japan, mother from Korea-- went to elementary, middle, and high school at Wayo Konodai Girs' School in Chiba-- studied drama at two-year college: Toho Gakuen College of Drama and Music -- studied Korean at Yonsei University in Seoul-- she lists her special skills as piano, swimming, Shaolin fighting, and Korean language-- born 22 January 1972

strong determination-- the day before recording started on Turn A Gundam, she was in an accident, breaking her leg and cutting her lip, but she was determined to show up for work anyway.-- on the final day of a stage performance, she tore a ligament in her wrist-- for a Fullmetal Alchemist fan event, she had a high fever, but appeared anyway. it took her several tries to even get out a word.

who she is-- in Shaman King, she got a chance to work with two of the seiyuu she admired most: Hayashibara Megumi and Takayama Minami (Kiki in Kiki's Delivery Service)-- she seems forceful and sometimes mischievous, but basically serious and kind.-- she can be slyly funny and talk dirty with Kugimiya Rie, then be quiet and serious with the interviewers on NHK's Anime Giga.

her name-- her surname is the Korean "Pak", which becomes "Paku" in Japanese.-- her given name Romi 璐美 is written with kanji that mean "Jade Beauty"-- the first kanji 璐 "[beautiful] jade" of her given name is unusual, and isn't available in the most common Japanese character sets for the computer (Unicode does have it).-- proper way to write "Paku Romi": 朴璐美-- ways it is written: ぱくろみ, 朴路美, 朴王路美, パクロミ, 朴瑠美, 朴ロ美

charity event-- she was a guest performer at a charity event last weekend, in support of the blind-- she and other seiyuu read from the Tale of Genji and other works-- some other names involved: Kamiya Hiroshi, Konishi Katsuyuki, Seki Tomokazu, Orikasa Fumiko, Taniyama Kishou, Koshimizu Ami

TV interviews-- Fullmetal Alchemist seiyuus (Kugimiya Rie, et al.)-- Dennou Coil seiyuus (Kuwashima Houko, et al.)-- conversation with Kugimiya Rie Romi takes control and they spin yuri stories together about her wanting to sleep with Rie and wanting to come home and find Rie wearing only an apron. They are friends, since playing brothers in Fullmetal Alchemist, and Rie has stayed at Romi's place and eaten her Korean cooking.

Shakespeare-- Paku-san played Desdemona in Theatre Group En's performance of Shakespeare's Othello

6
comments:

taka
said...

The first thing I ever saw Paku in was Air Master. Which was one of the first anime's i ever watched. Since then I've loved just about everything she's done. Plus we both share a love for Kugimiya Rie.

Seeing that she's also acted on stage seals the deal for me. Great entry on a great seiyuu.

The fact that my two favourite female VA's seem to be very "close" has always been kind of amusing to me, even if it's just for jokes. I'm still waiting on them being reunited in Gundam 00 under the same director that directed them in Fullmetal Alchemist.

Hashihime

The "Hashihime" or "Bridge Princesses," are characters in the novel The Tale of Genji (Genji Monogatari 源氏物語）. They are daughters of a disgraced prince, living alone with him in a small house at Uji, outside Kyoto. They are important characters in the last ten chapters of the novel.

The Genji can be considered the first real novel in the history of the world. It was written around 1000 AD by a Japanese court lady known as Lady Murasaki, or Murasaki Shikibu.

I think contemporary Japanese literature, including anime and manga, continues to preserve aspects of the Genji, among them sensitive psychological observation, a general passion for romance, and romantic interest in young girls. The main hero of the thousand-page novel, Prince Genji, had a number of present and former girlfriends living in his palace, and basically abducted his principal wife Murasaki when she was ten, marrying her when she was around 15.

notes

-- all Japanese names are written in Japanese order: surname first, given name second-- I claim no copyright on anything in this blog, unless otherwise stated